Author: Matthew Westphal

A Visit To The Bow-Makers Of Paris’s Musicians’ Row

“For musicians in Paris, the rue de Rome is a legendary place, at the same level as Tin Pan Alley or 42nd Street in New York. Sheet music shops and luthiers’ workshops are packed in like sardines. … It’s a place to inquire into these mysterious objects” — the hand-crafted bows for string instruments — “whose secrets are unknown even to most musicians.”

The Writer Anne Frank Never Became (And Whom The World Wouldn’t Have Liked As Much)

“Frank’s diary was not the work of a naïf, but rather of a writer already planning future publication.” (She made plenty of revisions, and they were obviously thought through.) “The problem is that the entire appeal of Anne Frank to the wider world — as opposed to those who knew and loved her — lies in her lack of a future.”

Opera Star David Daniels And U. Of Michigan Sued By Student Who Says Daniels Molested Him

Master’s student Andrew Lipian, an aspiring countertenor, accuses Daniels, now a tenured professor at the school, of sending nude selfies to Lipian, regularly coming on to him in conversation, and, on one occasion, drugging Lipian, removing his clothes, and groping him. (Earlier this year, Daniels and his husband were accused by another young singer of rape.)

Artemisia Gentileschi’s Career Is Soaring (If Only She’d Lived To See It)

The 17th-century Italian painter’s work has been getting lots of attention, and fetching ever-higher prices, over the past year or two. #MeToo is probably a factor (she was one of the rare victims of her time who insisted on a public trial of her rapist), as is the desire to compensate for the centuries of neglect female artists have received generally — but there’s also, quite simply, deserved recognition for her gifts as a painter.

Russia Goes Ahead With Major Kandinsky Show In Saudi Arabia

“Works by Wassily Kandinsky from the State Russian Museum in St Petersburg that went on show in Riyadh on Tuesday at Crown Prince Mohammed bin Salman’s controversial ‘Davos in the Desert’ are a teaser for a major exhibition on the Russian avant-garde artist to be held in the desert kingdom as part of expanding ties between Russia and Saudi Arabia.” (Khashoggi? Who’s that?)

After 14 Months’ House Arrest, Trial Of Russian Director Kirill Serebrennikov Finally Begins

The award-winning stage and film director is accused of embezzling from the Gogol Center, the award-winning avant-garde theatre he runs in Moscow. Reporter Oliver Carroll provides some background on both the director and the charges — which many observers say are trumped-up — and points out some basic weaknesses in the prosecution’s case.

Bauhaus Suffers Backlash After Cancelling Performance By Left-Wing Punk Band

“In an open letter issued Wednesday, artists, curators, and academics decried the Bauhaus Dessau Foundation’s decision to cancel a performance by the leftist punk band Feine Sahne Fischfilet. Originally scheduled for November 6, the concert was called off earlier this month because the band advocates for ‘politically extreme positions’.”

Masked Dancers Of Nepal Celebrate End Of Monsoon

“Indra Jatra, an eight-day festival celebrated mostly by the Newar community, the native residents of Kathmandu, is also known as the festival of deities and demons. It especially honors Indra, the Hindu god of rain, to mark the end of the monsoon. The masks and dances can be fearsome, entertaining and awe-inspiring, depending on the performers’ movements.”